Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Airplanes are great places to brainstorm. I had my share of airplane time in 2011. Someone recently asked me: "How many miles did you travel in 2011?" I have no idea. The mileage doesn't matter to me. Planes are valuable office time for me. I don't think about how many miles I'm flying, but the time to clearly think and plan while I am in the air.

Here's what I've been thinking and planning about marketing, communications and working with you:

The past 12 months
Lucky me. Thankful for bright, committed Association Executives who strive to get better

nSight Marketing worked with 40+ associations across the US  to help you get to know your members' needs, plan effectively, grow better leaders and think about communications in a more organized way.

The last 12 weeks
Information Gathering

• While I work, I was on my annual Q4 sabbatical. I was multi-tasking of course - working and learning, thoughtful reflection, surveying my team and target audience to get the facts and a basis for new ideas.
• I attend one major communications learning event per year. This one was at Southwest Airlines and the focus was brand and execution.
• I want insight from my customers and target audience, so I asked myself: What are my goals and what do I want to know?
• Analyzed my process and decide if I walk my talk. In other words, I want to make sure that I follow my own beliefs about my communications, and interaction with my current and potential customers.
• Formally asked my employees and support staff what we do well and what we can do better.
• I began getting nervous about starting the year at ZERO. Just like everyone else.
• Started on my plan for the new year. A plan to do better work with the heads and hands around me.

The next 12 days
Focus

• Update my brand promise and value proposition.
• Work with people around me to be sure we implement significant learning events and communications changes for the better.
• Finalize the 2012 plan.
• Stop eating and drinking so much!

The next 12 months
Passionate

• To work with associations who are determined, deliberate and aggressive in building a strong and living value proposition. 
• To help association executives and leaders create and communicate their brand and their value in order to exceed their membership and business goals.  

A wish for you
I wish you quality quiet moments - wherever you can find them.
I wish you thinking back to celebrate.
I wish you thinking ahead to get better.
I wish you a team who helps you get better in delivering the highest quality in every interaction.
I wish you joy in your work - knowing how many lives you touch in a positive way.

Happy New Year!

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

One Association's Story of Building a Communications Plan

If communications are on your Association's radar screen, then the more honest you are about your current situation, the clearer the path is to improving it.

Kudos to Boulder Area REALTORS® Association (BARA) for having the courage and the trust to bring someone in from the outside to change the way communication looks for BARA members. In her own words, here is CEO Veronica Precella's story:

"Each year the Board of Directors of the BARA gather to work on a plan that answers the question “Where are we going?” This year, as the result of an all member survey and two focus groups, it was clear that our communications to our members are inadequate. The entire BOD invested time to create the communications plan so that as we move forward, we move as a cohesive group towards our goals. Everyone has “bought in” and we are clear on the direction the plan will lead us."  

BARA's investment went beyond homework. The Board of Directors and staff attended a full day communications workshop together. After a day of discussion, brainstorming and then reaching consensus on some key communications methods, Veronica and her staff now have a document and a new process to propel their communications forward.

The feedback about the planning day was that the process was thought-provoking and creative. The Board and the staff made some efficient decisions throughout the process. They have new questions to consider and are confident about moving forward.

The plan also includes five benchmarks and measures so the Board can confirm if the new communication approach is moving in the right direction over the next year and beyond. It includes surveying members again next year to determine if the changes made a difference with the key audiences.

Kudos to BARA. Now that the plan is complete, Veronica and her staff of three will implement the aggressive, yet manageable, plan. Creating a plan can help achieve your goals - with a staff any size - if there are enough "eyes on the goal" and the goal is important enough to your future.

If you think one or more of your staff members would benefit from a communications workshop, here is some additional information on creating a simple, usable communications plan. 

One Association's Story of Building a Communications Plan

Thanksgiving 2011 from the WSJ article Countdown to a Food Coma

 This is the aftermath of Thanksgiving, 2011. Below are the cliffnotes from “Countdown to a Food Coma” from a Wall Street Journal article published on 11/22/11. read the full article

Here are strategies for Before, During, and After the biggest meal of the year:

⁃       Day Before: Go for a 30 minutes stroll or more vigorous activity. The benefits of exercise on how fat is processed after a big meal kick in many hours later.

⁃       8AM: Eat a healthy breakfast to rev up metabolism.

⁃       11AM: Avoid the temptation to snack in the kitchen.

⁃       4PM: Thanksgiving Dinner

⁃       After the Feast: Take a leisurely walk. Skip the late-night leftovers, and get back to regular meal sizes and schedules.

Commentary: I didn’t follow a single one of these steps and feel like I've been eating every 4 hours since Thanksgiving eve. From a dietary standpoint, I’m ready to go back to work!

From a thankfulness, family togetherness and filling of the heart (versus the tummy) standpoint, it was a healthy, fulfilling, rejuvenating holiday! I wish it would last a day or two longer!

Donuts anyone?

Thanksgiving 2011 from the WSJ article Countdown to a Food Coma

Planning Goes High Tech and High Output

Imagine there are no flip charts. Imagine if you can. No board table with members sitting in their predictable random order.

With no typical meeting room distractions like fluorescent lights, a laptop and overhead box projecting the slide on the pull-up or pull down screen.

Imagine all the people – board members - in a comfortable, refreshing and unpredicted environment - a relaxing setting that makes you feel good. Sofas, high top tables and bar stools, and bit screens across the living room type feel. Don't like sitting in a sofa all day? Move to the table where you can sit up straight. Need some coffee? Go make your own, one-cup at a time.

The agenda was adaptable and manageable:

• A beamed in webcast - a state economic outlook with a drill down into the local area for this association.
• The presentation on the big screen from a legal update to a discussion on value - what it is, how the association is doing with it, and ideas to communicate better.
• Presentations that were more like a big screen movie than a business meeting - and additional small television screens around the room
• The group focused on the vision and mission when discussing their strategic issues, their goals and what it would take to achieve them.
• Strategic Planning – real collaboration without rush or distraction.

The remote beamed between the walls, and breakout sessions with iPad for each group to document their ideas. It makes the output easy to capture and collect - and readable.

 

Settings like this where technology looks easy usually are not. Association Executive Mark Epstein (Tri Counties Association of REALTORS®) was behind the scenes certain the connections worked and the environment was laid back and easy.

 

When it comes to thinking differently, being strategic, a new, unexpected environment lent to board member focus, thinking clearly and being "there" in mind and body and spirit.

 

The ROI was obvious as we said goodbye. Comments included "relaxed, comfortable, engaged, productive and all on the same page."

Planning Goes High Tech and High Output

Great Marketing Starts with the Member

I hear questions like this once a month:

• “Why do members only complain? They don’t recognize what we do well?”
• "I'd like to create this printed brochure, can you give me your comments?"
• "We started posting all our news to Facebook. What should we expect?"
• "I am thinking about going back to advertising in this publication."

Marketing is more than an activity or two.  Most businesses that have marketing problems that could make so much progress if they had a marketing – and communications process across the organization.

When they don’t, they do things like realize an event is planned, and they rush at the last minute to report the news about it.

Could this be you?

Great marketing starts at the beginning.  And the beginning is the same as the end - your member.

Marketing is the process that establishes your value and commitment to your member, manages the process of member satisfaction, and keeps those members coming back (or coming) to your events and classes in the first place.  So the focus of great marketing is on the members, not just on the marketing tactic.

This means that to develop more effective marketing plan, think closely about your members (or prospects). What should you think about?  Try something along the lines of:

What are their daily problems in their industry?  What would they like you to provide that they could turn to you for help?

What news and information is important to them?
What other services would they like from you that you don’t offer today?
How satisfied are they with your high-value services (list them out)?
How can you help them, and in turn get them to recognize that you are there to help them?

The answers to these questions will help guide you to a sensible choice of creating your marketing tactics, and give you a better idea of what you need to include in your messages.

Great Marketing Starts with the Member

A Letter to An Association Executive

Good morning Association Executive, Executive Director, and/or EVP,

I hope this note finds you well.

I'm in the middle of a 2 -day webinar with all of the Real Estate Associations of Hawaii and Guam! It's the most interesting workshop I've ever done - as you can imagine. Not only the technology link, but the challenges that these associations have living in the same small geography and all wanting to deliver value through their communications.

I was working on today's "part II" and thought of you.

There is a step in this workshop where the group learns about key messages. That includes a combination the BENEFITS and the potential BARRIERS to your members responding to a call to action - whatever it is you want members to do (or to overcome).

As I think about your communications director and the work he/she has to do to really OWN your communications - I believe it begins with a common promise - one that your staff and your board creates together. A promise (or brand) that you can live, and communicate in both live and written interactions with members.

If identifying and communicating your "value proposition" is important enough to your association, it might be something you want to incorporate into your new board's planning early next year. You can do it yourself, or bring someone in from the outside if you need some help to keep you on track.

I think this is a way you can take your staff to the next level of unity and presenting a consistent voice of value to your members...and setting the expectation of what the staff will deliver and what the member can expect from you.

I know this is a little bit "out of right field", but sometimes these ideas just jump in my mind. Today, I decided to stop what I'm doing to tell you about it.

All the best,

Melynn

P.S. Just FYI, if your communications director or YOU would benefit from attending a communications plan workshop (to develop your communications plan for the upcoming year); The next one is a one-day workshop in Dallas in January...I'll link here in the event you want to learn more.

A Letter to An Association Executive

One Association's Journey to Creating Value

by Melynn Sight

Creating value really matters in an association’s strategic plan. Even if the words “creating value” aren’t spelled out, one of the many reason for strategic planning is to use your resources (people, time and money) to focus on key member, industry and/or market issues. To determine value, you could start with this question: “What promise do we make to solve a significant issue for our members?”

Value has many forms - it may be a tool, an emotional benefit that is safe or efficient, or the way an association communicates the key benefits of membership. While it may seem like a daunting task to embark on improving value in your association, most times just putting your head down and going to work is an ideal place to start. Yes, as they say, "Just Do It".

Seeing association leadership in action makes it very clear to me that there are three equal elements to creating value: planning, leadership involvement and implementation. Meet the Nebraska Pharmacists Association.

I take pride in the chance to take part in their path to creating more member value. Here’s what I see in a board and staff that makes the process work:

• Strategic planning narrowed down NPA's 2011 goals to three important ones. Board member names were attached to each goal, making them the lead for developing the operational plan to support the goal.
• There is a real champion for member feedback - the member services director knows that productive planning can't happen without knowing exactly what’s important to Pharmacist members current and prospective customers. A member research project was funded - two surveys: one for members, and one for non-members.
• With the final results, the staff reviewed the findings and key messages. The board received them as well. But it didn’t stop there.
• Last night at 6:30, 12 staff and board members conferenced for 90 minutes to discuss the survey together. First we reviewed the highlights of the survey process and results. Then I gave them three specific conclusions in the form of recommendations, and ideas about possible activities to support them.
• VERY SPECIAL STEP: After the presentation, every board member expressed their one biggest take-away from the report - the top priority that NPA should do to operationally support their strategic plan. Once they were finished, the ED had a list of a dozen insightful ideas about how the board and staff together can focus their efforts to make the right kind of change to chip away at meeting their goals.
• Not only did they spend 90 minutes making progress on their strategic plan, but took a stab at a process to firm up their value proposition - soon they will reconvene to work on their new elevator speech.

How do you spell V-A-L-U-E C-R-E-A-T-I-O-N? A board and staff determined to do the few, right things to grow the organization. Leaders who not only wants to make positive change, but also willing to be part of creating it.

Board and staff lead for a reason - to learn about what members value, and then make the right decisions about what belongs in a strategic - and operating plan to deliver on the promises they make. Congratulations, NPA.

One Association's Journey to Creating Value